Disney Dream Day 3: Nassau & Pirate Night

Picking up where I left off on our most recent Disney Dream cruise is our day at Nassau which also included Pirate Night. We were not used to a "backwards" itinerary of Castaway Cay as the first stop, so this day felt a little off to us. Nonetheless, we still had a great one!

If you missed any posts from our recent cruise on the Disney Dream, check out these links below:

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Initially, we didn't plan any excursions for Nassau and we weren't even sure we would get off of the ship. A couple of our travel buddies told us they had never been to Nassau, so instead of staying on the ship all day, we decided to disembark and walk around the port area to explore the town a little bit.

For starters, we began the day with breakfast...which included Mickey waffles, of course!

We literally had zero plans for Nassau, so we disembarked the ship and began to wander. The straw market that I remember encountering directly off the ship was under construction, so I'm interested to see what that looks like once we return next time!

We shopped around a bit and I found a some "authentic" cadbury chocolate to take back home with me. (It's so much better than the stuff made in the states.) I also purchased an Alex and Ani bracelet with the Bahamas logo on it.

We really didn't spend much time in Nassau (maybe a couple of hours), and our final stop was at a Starubucks!

We couldn't pass a Starbucks and not stop!

I've never had a chance to "wander" around Nassau and although we didn't go very far, we still enjoyed seeing a little more of the island!

Right outside of the parliament area was a few park benches where we sat and enjoyed the gorgeous day!

Of course, we had to take a few pictures on our way back to the ship.

A HUGE plus for us with cruising Disney is the hospitality when returning to the ship. We were met with ice cold towels as well as fruit infused water and juice!

This was so refreshing on such a warm day!

That afternoon, we enjoyed lunch, took a couple of rides on the aqua duck, swam in the pool, and had a nap! It really was a productive vacation day in my books!

For Pirate Night that evening, we all dressed in (somewhat) matching shirts and Brayden was our little pirate!

I love how our shirts turned out!

The Pirate Night meal on Disney Cruise Line is one of my favorite menus and offers so many delicious choices. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm sad for the loss of the pot-stickers (dumplings) off this menu, but there are so many other delicious choices to choose from!

After dinner, we walked up to deck 12 to catch the fireworks. There was a huge crowd and we were quite late, but we still managed to snag a decent spot to see the show!

My sunglasses were the star of the show for the towel animal display that evening!

See those gold coins? I have a funny story to tell about them in the next cruise blog post - we still laugh about it when we talk about it today!

I love the Disney cruise ships all the time, but especially at night! It all just feels so magical!

Oh yes, and one other funny story that happened that day - so as I was walking around passing out fish extender gifts, I happened across this cabin where he was asking for funny jokes. Jason helped me think of one, so I sent it and this was my response....

Isn't that too funny? I wonder if he received any other jokes the rest of the cruise? :)

Stay tuned for our final day on board the Disney Dream - our at sea day with brunch at Palo!! :)

Merrytime Cruise - Disney Wonder Day 5 (Jamaica)

Good morning!

It's another Wednesday which means another recap of our most recent cruise on the Disney Wonder!

Here's a list of previous recaps in case you're just joining here...

Disney Wonder Day 1 (Boarding)

Disney Wonder Day 2 (At Sea Day) 

Disney Wonder Day 3 (Cozumel, Mexico) 

Disney Wonder Day 4 (Grand Cayman)

Disney Wonder Day 5 (Falmouth, Jamaica)

Disney Wonder Day 6 (At Sea Day) 

Disney Wonder Day 7 (At Sea Day)

On Day 5, we made our final land stop which happened to be Falmouth, Jamaica! I'd never visited Jamaica prior to this cruise and was quite scared of all of the stories I'd heard, but we had nothing to worry about! We booked an excursion to the Jewel Resort where we spent the day at the beach. Jamaica was the hardest place to find an excursion because pregnant women were discouraged from doing all of the excursions I wanted to do! Whoops... :) So, the beach it was!

 Not before breakfast on board the ship, of course!

On our way to the resort, we were told that this used to be in the Breezes family of resorts. It's also an all-inclusive resort, so we had free range to practically anything there we wanted to do!

Whoever had the idea of busing cruisers to these resorts is one smart guy or gal! We filled about three buses alone from the Disney Wonder!

The resort was beautiful and filled with plenty do keep us occupied along with several different restaurants!

Our first stop was the beach, though! :)

Unfortunately, my husband wasn't feeling well at all that day. He'd been hit with what I call the crud-bug and nothing seemed to help. His eyes also decided to water like crazy and the sun only made it worse. So, a good portion of our morning was spent napping on the beach...but we didn't mind! It kind of reminded me of Castaway Cay! :)

There was even a water park at the resort! 

After a delicious lunch of jerk chicken and sausage (again, all-inclusive), we spent the remainder of the afternoon in the ocean. It was a gorgeous day and Jason's eyes/head felt much better as the day wore on.

How beautiful!

As we returned to port, we were greeted with a fellow port-mate, a ship in the Royal Caribbean cruise line.  Although the ship was much larger than the Wonder, I wouldn't have traded places for the world! :)

The port at Falmouth was gorgeous and we spent a little time shopping there before returning to the ship.

If you didn't have an excursion booked, then you weren't allowed to leave this gated port area. As our bus returned, someone came in to check and make sure everyone was legit and with an actual cruise line. Serious business, people!  

Dinner attire for the evening was Pirate themed as it was Pirate night! 

This menu is one of my all-time favorites! 

Pot stickers....SO GOOD!

Pineapple

Watermelon soup

 Sirloin of Beef

We didn't waste time after dinner. As soon as we finished eating, we made our way to the top deck for the Pirates in the Caribbean Deck Party!

The fireworks at sea are always a treat, too! 

Just in case you weren't still full from dinner, there was a full-service buffet after the fireworks! 

I was so full I hardly ate anything (except ice cream, of course)!

This monkey was waiting for us when we returned to our room! :)

That's all for our day in Jamaica! Stay tuned for next week's update. Oh yes, and this week's pregnancy update will be on Friday instead of Thursday. :)

Have a great one!

Have you ever visited Jamaica? If so, what did you do there?

Disney Princess Half Trip Recap–Disney Dream Day 3

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! We did end up going to see Tomorrowland and I loved it!! I know the movie received mixed reviews but I definitely left with a smile on my face!

Speaking of Disney, next up on our Disney Cruise Line adventures is our Castaway Cay Day which began super early because of the Castaway Cay 5K.

Missed a previous recap? Here you go! :)

• Disney Dream Day 2
• Disney Dream Day 1
• Princess Weekend Day 3&4
• Princess Weekend Day 2
• Princess Weekend Day 1

After the 5K, we began a slow walk back to the ship. It was a slow walk because the island was still deserted and it was so nice and peaceful!

We also stopped for a few pictures along the way! :)

Back in our room, I noticed that the smell of cigarette smoke was quite strong from our balcony. I decided to contact guest services, just incase there was anything they could do. (I paid for a verandah so I could enjoy it, and second hand smoke isn’t my way of enjoying a vacay…)

Anyway, back to Castaway Cay….

We put on our swim suits, grabbed a quick breakfast in Cabanas, then headed back out to the island.

This time, our destination was Serenity Bay!

I. Love. This. Place.

Even though I don’t consider myself a “beachy” person, this is a gorgeous place to relax. As a matter of fact, relaxing is exactly what we did. For hours. At one point, we were both asleep in the shade of an umbrella on a couple of lounge chairs. Combine that with the sound of the ocean in the background….heaven, pure heaven.

Around noon, we walked over to Cookie’s for delicious BBQ and made a few birdie friends while at it! (We did not feed the birds, we just said hello.) :)

Mid-afternoon, we noticed a crazy fella stumbling down the beach….

Aye, matie! It was Captain Jack Sparrow! He informed me that the contraption on my leg looked “infected” and “we might have to amputate”….

After relaxing a bit more, we got in the water and swam to the sand bar which was a pretty decent ways out (it didn’t look like it from the beach). We saw a few sting ray and other non-harmful sea animals, then we swam back to the beach for naptime round 2!

We stayed on Serenity Bay as long as we could before heading back to the ship.

This little fella wanted to say hello, too!

Back in our room, I was surprised to see a package on our bed – included was a note from guest services, thanking us for contacting them and informing us that they did all they could to rectify the cigarette smoke issue. I was pleasantly surprised and thought the gift was really nice of them!

 

Unfortunately, I think our room was right next to a crew  smoking deck. On the plus side, when the ship was moving, we couldn’t smell a thing! :)

Bye Castaway Cay! Until next time!!

Dinner that evening included Pirate Night along with the Pirates of the Caribbean deck party and fireworks!

Arrrrggghhhh! I found treasure!

Out of all the dinner menus on board the Disney Cruise Line, Pirate Night happens to be my favorite!

Pineapple and pot sticker appetizers…yum yum!

Fish for dinner and a trio of desserts…oh my!

For some reason, I don’t have any pictures from the Pirates party, but we did walk up on deck to watch! I love how the Dream’s Pirate party is different from those on board the Magic and Wonder!

After the fireworks, we called it a night. Although we slept most of the day away at Castaway Cay, we were tired!!

Up next: A day at sea!

What’s your favorite Castaway Cay activity?